Obama looks to close wage gap while paying female staffers less than men

April 7, 2014

by Caroline May

President Barack Obama is planning to sign two new executive actions aimed at narrowing the wage gap between men and women Tuesday, even as the Obama White House pays its female staffers less than men.

The first executive action will be an order banning federal contractors from retaliation against employees who disclose or ask about their wages, according to reports. His other executive action will require federal contractors to submit data to the government about their employees compensation by sex and race.

On Tuesday — the day advocates have labelled “Equal Pay Day” to symbolize the amount of time women have to work to make as much as men did the year before — Obama will sign the executive orders at the White House, according to an AP report.

“From making the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act the first bill he signed into law to these actions, the President has proven himself to be a true champion for women in the workplace,” Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU senior legislative counsel and co-chair of the National Paycheck Fairness Coalition, said in a statement. “Congress still needs to do its part and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, but we’re one step closer to achieving pay equity thanks to this White House.”

Despite advocates’ cheers about paycheck equity, the Obama White House has paid women less than men for years.

According to a Daily Caller analysis of “2013 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff,” the most recent available data on White House pay, the White House paid women an estimated 11.8 percent less than men in 2013.

The year prior White House paid women 13 percent less than men — and in 2011, according to the Free Beacon, women were paid 18 percent less.

To be sure, all the analysed years were better than what the federal government says is the current wage gap: 23 percent.

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